Sentencing postponed for cocaine importers

Posted: Friday, November 03, 2006

Sentencing for a pair of Auburn men convicted of conspiring to import cocaine into the United States has been postponed until January because the two are expected to testify next month against an alleged co-conspirator.

Gary Stephen Krist and Henry Jackson "Jackie" Greeson were to be sentenced next week after the two pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import cocaine. The men faced 10 years to life in prison. Krist and Greeson were arrested in March after Krist returned from Colombia, where authorities say he bought cocaine. Krist, infamous for a nearly 40-year-old kidnapping case, also pleaded guilty to a charge of smuggling aliens.

The two also face up to $4 million in fines.

On Monday, a federal prosecutor in Mobile, Ala., asked a judge to postpone sentencing because the men are expected to testify in December against Antonio Bryan Joseph. He is charged with conspiring with Greeson and Krist to distribute more than 5 kilograms of cocaine between December 2004 and March 13, according to an indictment handed down in July.

On March 10, drug investigators executed a search warrant at Krist's house on Georgia Highway 324, northwest of the Barrow County city of Auburn. Investigators found an underground cocaine-processing laboratory, authorities said.

Krist's arrest brought back into the limelight a man who in 1968 kidnapped the daughter of a well-known Florida businessman, buried her alive in Gwinnett County and collected a $500,000 ransom from her father.